Claes Oldenburg

Segal, Brecht, Dine and Grooms were met soon after Oldenburg arrived in New York. He first saw Kaprow at a picnic on Segal’s farm; Kaprow, Higgins, Whitman, Wesselman and Samaras were all involved by him in his performances. His association with all of these, and with others like Lichtenstein (met through Kaprow), was symptomatic of their mutual desire to develop work beyond the constraints of Abstract Expressionism. He worked informally for Antonioni in Rome, and visited Carl Breer in Detroit (he already knew Robert Breer). Gehry and Oldenburg, close colleagues, worked on various large-scale projects together.